Orientation and Cape Town City Tour

Today was the first day of CCS orientation!  So far there are 6 of us in the incoming group because one new member got caught up at the airport and won’t be in until later tonight.  There are three volunteers who have been here for different lengths of time and who will be staying for another few weeks.

We started orientation with a group meeting with new volunteers this morning.  We got to meet Luann, the CCS South Africa Director, who I will be working with for the next 12 weeks.  I was happy to hear how she spoke of program evaluation and how serious CCS South Africa takes the impact of their volunteers.  After talking to several volunteers yesterday who seem to spend a lot of time going out at night and complaining about CCS policies, it was refreshing to hear about the professional side of the program.

We also set expectations and goals for our placements, what “homebase” (the volunteer house) might be like, what we hope to do in the city, and what we can do to make the most of our experience.  I like this exercise and have used in with Sa Nima before…I was kind of surprised yesterday when I heard the previous volunteers complaining about it since I think it’s really important to have goals at first that you can reflect on and revise later in the program. 

After having a “braai” (barbeque) for lunch, we headed out on a City Tour of Cape Town with James, the CCS Driver and excellent Tour Guide.  We got to see District 6, which was an area that was bulldozed during apartheid, forcing many people out of the city (more to come on that after we visit the District 6 museum).  We also saw the downtown area and the places to hang out and shop for souvenirs.  Will have to go back and check that out in free time later. I really need an African purse or two and my teeth are chattering in anticipation of being able to pick out some cool black and white dangly earrings (turns out they're "recycled" cow bone)!

James drove us to the top of Signal Hill, which is where they would fire cannons when a ship was in distress and now, they fire every day at noon.  We saw some guinea fowl up there, which I thought were female peacocks at first.   

Coming down the mountain, we got to walk on the beach in a town that looked like Laguna Beach with some major fancy hotels and resorts then headed toward the mall.  This was the biggest mall I’ve ever been in with all of the fancy stores you’d see in a big city.  We found a nice amphitheathre outside with a flamethrower and a band getting ready to play then headed over to Nobel Square (a tribute to the 4 Nobel Laureates from South Africa) and a giant statue made of recycled Coca-Cola crates.

After a long day of touring we had a good dinner at home base and started chattering about what to do in our short times here!  Ideas floating around are the Cape to Addo tour where you can pick and choose your adventures on a 3 day tour, a Cape Point tour that stops off in Simon’s Town to see the penguins (did you know that the Cape of Good Hope is NOT the Southernmost point in Africa?), a hike up Table Mountain if it’s nice on Tuesday, or just checking out the local music scene on Long Street.